The BlackHawk Saga Darkness Falz
by mblackhawk
Summary: "The BlackHawk Saga" Continues, as Mike and Lara are assigned a mission to destroy a creature that had already taken out 3 other teams. The Hunter's Guild is out in force for this one.
1. Chapter 1

**Darkness Falz  
by  
M_BlackHawk**

**Chapter 1:**

It had been several days since the death of Zoke Miyama to his former student, Shane Dansen. Since then, Mike BlackHawk and his family had been continuing their work, investigating the ancient Ruins underneath Ragol's surface.

Lara awoke on this particular morning, to find her husband sharpening his katana with a whetstone. "Is something wrong?" she asks, "I've never seen you up this early, or this nervous."

"There was a message for us this morning," Mike explains, "From Principal Tyrell, and the Guildmaster of the Hunter's Guild. We've taken some heavy losses from some creature in the ruins. Three teams have tried to take down this beast, but none have returned."

"My word," Lara thinks out loud, "Tyrell wants us to deal with it, doesn't he?"

"Yes," the HUmar sword master answers, "We'll be teamed with another hunter, and a force for this mission. We're to meet our partners at Tyrell's office this afternoon. There are already operations underway in the ruins to sweep the entire area, and clear it out for us."

"Anyone we know on these operations?"

"Maya's already left. I also got a call from Willem at Angelus Manor. Seifer and Diego are in the ruins, with Dash, Cajun, Necron and Striker. I just hope we've got the strength to deal with this."

"Who can we leave Jessica with?" the HUnewearl wonders, "She surely won't be ok while we're off fighting."

"Amelia didn't go with Seifer," BlackHawk tells his wife, "She'll be here in an hour. I'm thinking of taking Dad's saber into battle."

"The Elysion?"

"If this situation is as grave as Tyrell says, we may need it."

"I understand." After that exchange, Lara gets up and gets her gear ready. She and Mike go to their weapons cache and each get a Varista for a sidearm, while Mike takes his father's saber, the Elysion, and his katana. Lara decides on a Vjaya partisan, and her twin brand, which she puts on her belt.

Two hours later, the BlackHawks are standing at Tyrell's desk, along with their partners. One of them is a young looking newman force, named Buffy. Lara had worked with this one before, on training missions in the "Endless Nightmare" VR sims. Buffy carried her favorite wand, the Twinkle Star. The other was a HUnewearl with light blue hair. She carried an Imperial Pick, with a saber on one side of her belt, and a Geist Raygun on the other. Her name is IceDrop. All four hunters awaited word from the Principal.

"The situation is as grave as we had suspected," the Principal advises the hunters, "We sent another team in last night, before we called you four. We lost contact with them after 90 minutes from contact with the creature. We have no idea what we're dealing with, except for some message pods that my daughter had left. This creature is apparently a consciousness. It has no body. Rico happens to think that this beast is some Lord of Destruction that resurrects in a millennial cycle."

"I see," Mike answers, "What else do we know about this thing?"

"Not much," Tyrell tells the HUmar, "We don't even have any visual data on this thing for analysis. I hate to send you four in blind, but you're the best we've got. Mike, I also heard that the swordsman you faced in the ruins days ago may still be in there. Be careful." After hearing that news, Mike's eyes narrow.

"Mike," Tyrell says, concluding his statement, "Since you're the most experienced among this team, I'm putting you in command. I do hope you all come out of this alive. Good luck, and good hunting."

The team of hunters give the Principal a nod, and then head out for the teleporter leading to the ruins. Not knowing exactly what they're up against, these four now face the challenge of a lifetime in a creature infinately stronger than all of them.

The Hunter's Guild has had operations going in shifts, keeping the monster population in check, until the party assigned by Principal Tyrell can get to their destination. Then, the hunters would retreat to a location assigned by the guild, and telepipe back to Pioneer 2, to await the news of the creature's demise.

Rifle blasts zinged past the head of a dimenian, impacting into the legs of a Delsaber. Her HUcast partner, assigned by the Hunter's Guild took a swipe of his partisan, slashing several of the dimenian hoardes into oblivion. A Chaos sorcerer appeared, only to be blasted by a Grants from the FOmar in this particular party.

"If this keeps up," Maya thinks to herself, "We should survive long enough to see this creature killed."

"I hope so," the huge, dark blue HUcast responds, "We've lost too many to that thing already. Who's supposed to be coming to deal with the creature?"

"Mike and Lara are on that mission," the RAcaseal answers, "I hear that they've got two partners assigned to them by the Guild, and the principal."

"Let's hope it's enough," Dell tells them, blasting a Foie at a chaos bringer, only to have it shot down by Maya's rifle, "If not, we're in for a world of trouble."

Elsewhere, another party is hard at work, taking down numerous monsters as quickly as they can.

"Either the monsters are getting weaker," Seifer Angelus tells his companions, "Or we've gotten a lot stronger over the past few weeks."

"I doubt these monsters are getting weaker," Cajun tells his friend, "But we've been fighting down here for a couple of hours already, and these mop-up operations are supposed to buy time for our friends to get down here and take out that creature."

Seifer checks the Photon charge on his weapon, before slicing into another delsaber. "I just hope they get here soon. We'll be running out of power before we know it."

"Just keep up the assault," Diego tells his brother, "The rest should take care of itself."

In Principal Tyrell's office, Guildmaster Tyler Clark listened to communications going on in the ruins. "It's going well, Principal," he advises Pioneer 2's governor, "The Hunters should have the ruins cleared out in time for the main party to make their assault. So far, the first two floors have been cleared, and the third is on it's way to being swept of any monster presence."

"Excellent," Tyrell responds, with his back to the guildmaster, looking out the window of his office, "I noticed BlackHawk had his father's saber, Elysion. It's strange for him to be carrying both that, and his normal katana, the Hiryu no ken, that Zoke gave him."

"Did you notice his reaction to the news of that other swordsman?"

"Yes. It could be quite interesting to see what happens. Monitor communications between the BlackHawk party. We should be in for quite a revelation."

Clark looks at Tyrell with some look of puzzlement, wondering what's going on in the principal's mind.

The final chamber before the creature's lair was filled with different creatures. Inside this room, another team of hunters takes care to clear out the monster presence. This team consists of two HUmars, and two rangers from military intelligence.

Necron slashed his way through a couple of dimenians, only to have a chaos bringer appear right behind him. It was shot down by Shiara Mano's Bravace. "Thanks," Necron tells his partner, before taking out another dimenian hoard, "These things just keep coming and coming and coming."

"But we've got to keep up the fight," Mano answers, "Lara and her party will be here shortly. Hold on, Necron. Several marks coming this way. It's reinforcements. The other levels have been cleared."

A large number of hunters raced through the doorway, weapons at the ready. What once was a fight for survival for a team of four, became the last stand of the ruins monsters. After losing four teams to this creature, the Hunter's Guild had had enough. Emotion fueled each combatant, pushing them to stronger power, and clearing out the chamber with time to spare.

"Glad you guys could make it," Striker told the other hunters, "You all are a sight for sore eyes."

"Save it for now," IceBlink tells the other HUmar, while slashing through his opposition with his saber+75, "There's still one battle to go after this. We'll celebrate after that one's won."

"Yes, but will the BlackHawks and their partners be able to do this, though?" Capt. James Morgan asks the other hunters, "This thing has already taken out four complete teams."

"They can and will," Maya answers, "I've seen him fight more battles than you'll know, and believe me when I say, they'll win."

"I hope you're right, Maya," Maya's HUcast compatriot thinks out loud, "You sure have faith in that team."

"My faith is in Mike and Lara, Galveris," the RAcaseal reminds her partner, "I've watched them on other quests and know their strength. Besides, they have to win, and get home to Jessie."

Mike and Lara's team had proceeded through two different levels of the ruins, not seeing a single monster around. In his hand, Mike held the hilt of his saber, Elysion. Lara, IceDrop and Buffy watched as the HUmar activated the mystical blade. Lara's Vjaya sprung to life as she activated it's photon charge. IceDrop readied her pick, while Buffy kept the Twinkle Star close.

The team passed a long hallway, coming up on a monolith, and a message pod. Lara activated the pod to listen to the message inside. The voice was "Red Ring" Rico Tyrell's. "The door is already opened," it said, "We opened it. This may be the beginning of the end of the universe. We have to do something... We must do it. We have to defeat it now! Defeat it before that dark "thing" revives with the perfect body."

"I guess we know what we have to do," Buffy tells the team, "Rico's messages told us what this thing is."

"But if it's a consciousness," Lara replies, "How can we kill it?"

"If the other parties were able to fight it," IceDrop says calmly, "then the consciousness must have found a body."

"Good assumption," Mike responds, "We'll just have to see when we get there. I hate going in blind as much as you do, Lara, but we're already involved in this battle. We've got to win this fight, or our people will never find another homeworld."

Lara nods as the team proceeds into the next room, which is filled with Hunters. Mike, Lara, IceDrop and Buffy receive well wishes from all as they approach the doorway to the creature's lair. Waiting there are a few old friends.

"Glad you guys could get here," Seifer Angelus tells Mike, shaking his friend's hand, "Send that monster to meet its maker for us."

Mike grins, "Ok..the celebrations at your place afterwards, though." The two laugh at their exchange.

"Good luck, Lara," Diego says, "Wish I could be there with you."

Lara hugs Diego, "You guys just get out of here," she advises him, "We'll be back shortly. We'll all get together after the fight's over. Oh, make sure that Amelia doesn't need help taking care of Jessica, ok?"

"You've got it," the RAmar answers.

Lara then turns her attention to her sister, Shiara Mano. "Well, sister," she says, "I guess this is it. Wish me luck."

"I'll be with you in spirit, Lara," Shiara tells her elder sister, "Good luck, and get this thing for Riala, ok? She was on Pioneer 1."

"I will," the HUnewearl replies, "Bet on it."

"Mike," Maya advises her longtime friend, "some data analysis was done on what we did know about this creature, and about the explosion. It's supposed that this creature is responsible for the explosion at Pioneer 1's Central dome."

Mike nods, "Ok, Maya. Thanks for the information. We've got to go now."

"Come back alive," the RAcaseal says, "I'd hate to lose you and Lara in here."

Their goodbyes said, Mike, Lara and Buffy head to the transporter into the monster's lair. IceDrop is midway through the passageway to the transporter when she's stopped by a voice calling out her name. "ICEDROP!" a male voice yells. She turns around slowly noticing the icy-blue haired HUmar. "Good luck," he says, "And be sure to come back. I'd miss you." IceDrop blushes as she turns around and heads into the transporter. Already focused on the coming battle, the three other hunters don't notice IceDrop's flushed expression.

The team appears out of the transporter, into a garden. Buffy sets a Shifta and Deband on her partners as they proceed toward the massive monolith in the center of the garden. Weapons at the ready, this team now faces their most challenging battle ever.


	2. Chapter 2

**Darkness Falz  
Chapter 2:  
Battle for Ragol**

Standing in the garden, the team looked around. Mike started walking toward the massive monolith in the center of the garden. When he came to the steps leading to the base of the structure, he stopped and looked at the blade of his weapon, the Elysion. The intricate light blade shone brighter than he had remembered, as if it were reacting to something in this structure. Lara, Buffy and IceDrop joined him at the base.

"There's something in here," the HUmar tells his allies, "The Elysion's reacting to this monolith."

"You think the creature's in this structure?" Lara asks, "one would think that a creature capable of destroying four teams of hunters would be bigger than that."

"Never underestimate a smaller enemy," Buffy advises Lara, "You forget that even a small mothmant can be deadly."

"of course."

"Let's stay close," Mike says, "For now, at least. We don't know what's coming once this creature appears."

The others nod as they walk up to the monolith. When they get up to the base, several hundred thin creatures with spinning blades appear out of nowhere. Mike and Lara put away their hand weapons and pull their sidearms from their holsters. IceDrop sticks to her pick, as she takes out two of the spinners easily. The other two hunters blast away, taking out several more of the spinning darvants. Buffy's rabarta finishes off a large number of the spinning blades, as several of them, which were mere illusions fade into non-existance.

The huge monolith begins to explode with immense power as a enormous creature with three dragon-like heads appears out of nowhere. One of the heads lowers, releasing darvants to attack the hunters. Lara keeps her varista out, shooting the spinners while Buffy blasts away with Grants and Foies, as well as keeping up their Shifta and Deband. IceDrop's Imperial Pick slices several gashes in the draconic head, while Mike makes a rush for one of the other heads. He makes a leap, high into the air, the glowing Elysion flashing with power as he brings it down upon the monstrous dragon-like creature.

The dark creature brings all three heads up into, and raises it's monstrous arms. Bolts of energy shoot down from on high. The three hunters gather around Buffy, who casts a high level Resta, healing her comrades.

Another head drops to the ground, releasing Darvants. Realizing that close range combat was preferable to using the long range of the imperial pick, IceDrop straps the pick to her back and takes the saber off her belt. She rushes back toward the dark monster, Buffy close behind her. Again, Lara's varista deals with the spinners, while Buffy's spells and IceDrop's attacks deal substantial damage to the monster. Mike watched the Elysion, and then looked to the monstrous head that was on the ground. He ran right toward the enormous draconic creature, slicing faster than he has ever before, hitting numerous slashes in just a matter of seconds. The Elysion flashed with power every time it made contact with the monster.

Soon, the draconic heads were no more, as the creature now floated above the perimeter of the fighting arena. "Mike," Buffy tells the hunter, "Switch to your handgun. You won't get close enough to use the Elysion this time."

"Got it," Mike responds back, then turns his attention to IceDrop, "Switch to your gun. We need to respond to each situation as it comes. This thing looks fast."

"Understood," IceDrop answers, putting the saber back at her belt, and pulling her raygun from the holster.

The creature makes a run for one end of the arena, while the hunters give chase. Buffy casts another Grants, making the creature shriek in agony. It rises from the ditch around the arena, revealing a bulbous belly. Mike, Lara and IceDrop stay close as they fire round after round into the large target. It drops back down on its belly, and points its left arm toward the hunters, casting multiple Rafoies within seconds. The hunters fall to the ground from the powerful magic attack, but Buffy is quick to recover and casts another Resta, restoring their strength.

Once again, the monster heads for the other end of the arena, and drops down on its belly. This time, when the hunters give chase, it points its right arm at them, releasing numerous rabarta fields. Lara and Mike are frozen in place. IceDrop starts firing again, when the opportunity presented itself and the monster raises up from its perch. Buffy healed Mike and Lara, while they were still frozen. The two were suddenly released from their icy prisons, and they started once more firing on the demon's sweet spot. The monster lowers itself again, after a few more shots and runs again for another end of the field.

Meanwhile, back at the BlackHawk's home in Skyly sector of the residential ship, Mota, Amelia BlackHawk watches over her niece. As if the child knew what was happening to her parents, she started crying. Amelia picked the small girl up, and walked around the room, singing a lullabye to her, but Jessica Lynn BlackHawk wouldn't stop crying.

This time, as the hunters were giving chase to the monster, the demon raised up higher than he had before. He slammed down into the ground, causing a ripple in the ground, and disrupting the hunters equilibrium, slowing them down. It raised its arms into the air again, bringing down another lightstorm from on high. This brought the hunters down once more. Buffy slowly got up, and healed her comrades, before opening up a trifluid, and restoring her tech power. The diminuative FOnewearl then resets the party's enchantments as the three hunters get up. Three handgun shots impact at the same time as Buffy's Grants as the creature fails its arms and it's head falls to the ground.

"Is it over?" Lara asks, "That can't be it."

"I wouldn't think that would be the end of this monster," Mike tells his wife, showing her the Elysion, still glowing, "The sword is still reacting to this demon."

Sure enough, the creature was still alive. This time, it took on a whole new form. Buffy tried a grants but it did little damage to the beast. Lara tried to shoot the monster, but the demon turned itself translucent, and the gunshots did no good. IceDrop tried her imperial pick, since she was right in front of the demon. The partisan went straight through, and hit nothing.

The demon flew up high into the air, pointing toward Lara. It started releasing energy balls at the HUnewearl, but Lara ran around the new ring-like fighting arena. The demon tries a Megid, but the hunters are able to avoid the spell by running to one side or another. The creature then cast multiple grants techs. Mike had to open up a trimate, while Buffy healed IceDrop and Lara.

The demon then descended toward the hunters and turned solid once more. This time, though, Mike had the Elysion ready, and leapt up and landed on the monster's head. The HUmar sword master brought the Elysion up and plunged the blade into the head of the enormous demon. This caused the demon to flail its arms into the air and begin to disappear.

The four hunters were standing once again on solid ground in the dark arena, as a single red ring dropped to the ground where the demon had once been. Lara bends down and picks up the ring, before looking up to the opposite side of the arena, noticing a lone human standing there, with a hoard of dimenians and delsabers behind him. The white haired human is carrying a DB's saber.

"Mike," she says, "Look over there."

"Dansen," Mike says, putting the Elysion away, and drawing his katana, Hiryu no ken, "Not him again. Lara, IceDrop, Buffy, leave Dansen to me. You three take care of those monsters. They're blocking our way to the teleporter out of here."

"Be careful, honey," Lara answers, "We'll be waiting at the teleporter."

Mike nods as he charges right at Dansen. The HUmar sword master watches Dansen hold his ground, waiting. However, instead of running head-long toward his opponent, Mike uses the intense speed of his sword style, going airborne before Dansen knew where he was. Mike's diving attack is blocked by Dansen's DB's saber.

Lara watched the Dimenians closely. Her Vjaya flared to life as Buffy reset their enchantments. "Fight hard, and come back alive," Lara tells IceDrop, "Other than that, do what you have to."

"Understood," IceDrop says in a cool voice.

"I'll start us off," Buffy remarks, casting a rafoie, which sears the skin off of a good number of the monsters. Lara and IceDrop join the fray, slashing away with their partisans. The wild beasts attack furiously at the two HUnewearls, only to have the long reach of the partisans holding them back.

"What's it going to take to beat him?" Mike thinks to himself as he watches Dansen approach slowly, "He took that beating I gave him after he killed Master Zoke, and is still coming back for more."

"Ready to accept your fate yet, BlackHawk?" the dark warrior inquires, "Your master put up a much better fight."

"Not by a long shot," Mike answers, parrying a strike from Dansen's saber, "I'll put an end to your madness, Dansen. Master Zoke couldn't stop you, but I will."

"Shane Dansen no longer exists," the dark warrior yells, "When I joined with the consciousness in this ruin, I was reborn as Shade Stalker." Stalker charges, giving Mike the chance he needed. The blonde hunter holds the katana, Hiryu no ken, parallel to his body, and rushes right at his opponent. His attack hits several different places on Stalker's body at almost the exact same moment.

Two partisans tear through the last of the dimenians. However, that still left the delsabers to deal with.

"IceDrop," Lara advises her partner, "I'd switch to either your gun or your saber. I doubt we'll get any shots in with partisans against these things."

IceDrop nodded switcing to her saber. Lara activated her twin brand, and the two Hunters entered the fray once more. IceDrop's attacks manage to take out two or three of the monsters, before a leaping attack knocks her down. Buffy casts a Razonde to stun the beasts while the blue haired hunter gets up and heals herself with a Resta.

Lara's twin brand had already taken out several of the delsabers. Using skills she had learned from watching a battle between her husband and Seifer Angelus, she tore a swath of destruction through the hoard of beasts. Buffy's Rafoie and Rabarta took out the last of the enemies as the three approached the teleporter.

"You two go on through," Lara advises her partners, "I'm waiting for Mike."

"We'll wait at the guild," Buffy replies, as she and IceDrop teleport back up to Pioneer 2. Their goodbyes said, Lara turned her attention to the battle her husband was fighting.

Mike BlackHawk breathed heavily, slowly wearing down from the long fight with Shade Stalker. Stalker ran right at the HUmar, hitting a lateral attack which knocks the katana from Mike's hand. As Stalker comes around once more to attack, Mike parries the attack by drawing and activating the Elysion. BlackHawk lunged backwards, picking up his katana, and placing it in its scabbard. Another long breath and the blonde haired warrior once again goes into the air.

"I've already seen through that attack, BlackHawk," Stalker yells, lunging upwards to meet the warrior in mid air. BlackHawk goes into a mid-air spin, holing the Elysion at his side. As the two warriors met in mid-air, Mike attacked laterally, slashing through his dark adversary's chest and abdomen. Stalker falls to the ground and disappears in a flash of black power. Mike lands on one knee, and puts the Elysion away, as Lara runs up to him, helping him up to his feet. With nothing needing said, the two take the teleporter back to Pioneer 2.


	3. Chapter 3

**Epilogue  
A Promise for the Future **

During the battle in the ruins, Hunter's Guildmaster Tyler Clark had gathered his people around in the guild hall, where they listened to the communications between the BlackHawk party. When news was received of the monster's defeat, a shout was heard all through the main ship. That shout turned to stunned silence at the news of Shade Stalker. Diego Angelus listened closely, as the two warriors clashed swords. When Buffy and IceDrop came through the doors, he pulled the FOnewearl off to the side.

"What happened?" he asked

"We had just killed the monster," Buffy explained, "When that swordsman appeared out of nowhere. Mike called him 'Dansen'."

"Apparently, he's taken on a new name," Diego tells her, "That guy now calls himself 'Shade Stalker'. He's joined with that consciousness, and is probably more powerful than any hunter in the guild."

"Lara stayed behind to wait for Mike. I hope they're ok."

The hunters continued to listen, until the communications system went silent.

Mike and Lara had gone from the teleporter, back to their home instead of to the guild. When they arrived, Lara began tending to a few wounds that her husband had gotten in his duel with Shade Stalker.

Amelia walks in on the two, with Jessica in her arms. "Lara," the FOmarl asks, "Why don't you let me take care of my brother. While you two were out fighting, Jessie never stopped crying."

"Did she?" Mike inquires as Amelia hands her niece to Lara and starts healing her brother's wounds

"She sure did," Seifer Angelus says, coming into the room behind Amelia, "One would think she knew what was going on." Seifer punches in a few words on his BEE uplink, sending a message to his brother. A message appears in just a few minutes in reply. "Well," Seifer thinks out loud, "Will you look at that. Clark's trowing a victory party at the observation deck. Wouldn't be much of a party without the guests of honor."

"We'll be there shortly," Mike tells him, "I've got to put the Elysion back where it belongs, and get into another uniform."

"And I want to get Jessie ready to go, too," Lara finishes, "The rest of the guild's not seen her, and I think it's time."

"You know," Seifer muses, "I don't think this will really be much of a party without Davion around. Since he disappeared, things just haven't been the same."

"I know," Mike replies, "We miss him, too. I've been down to the forests on a number of occasions looking for him. I've turned up nothing, though."

Seifer and Amelia walk out of the room, and head to the observation deck, leaving Mike and Lara to contemplate everything that's happened in the past few days. Mike takes the Elysion and puts it back in its box, and walks back to Lara in the nursery. The two get their daughter ready to go, and all three BlackHawks leave their home headed to the victory celebration.

The three are met by almost the entire Hunter's guild, all wishing them well. Several HUnewearls and FOmarls gathered around Lara, who introduced them to Jessica. Mike stood there with his wife and child, talking and enjoying the party. The Hunters partied through the night, while the BlackHawks turned in early.

The next morning, Mike stood in front of Principal Tyrell's desk. Like usual, Tyrell had his back turned to the HUmar, and his hands crossed behind his back, looking out the observation port. "What is it you wanted to discuss, Mr. BlackHawk?" the Principal asked.

"Sir, it's about Ragol," Mike began, "After hearing Master Zoke's last words, I don't think Ragol is the best place for our people. After that last battle, my reservations about Ragol were only made stronger. If there are creatures like that one on Ragol, then landing there will only be trouble. More trouble than the Hunter's Guild can deal with."

"Mr. BlackHawk," Tyrell reminds Mike, "You do know that if we don't land here, we'll probaly never find another suitable world for our people. We searched 12 sectors before Pioneer 1 lifted off from Coral. Ragol was the only world that was suitable for our needs. We have to land here. We have no real choice. Your reservations are noted, but our hands are tied. We're landing on Ragol in 3 days. We've found a suitable spot on a continent several thousand kilometers from Pioneer 1. We won't land near the ruins. That should keep us relatively safe."

Mike turns around and walks out, thinking to himself, "I sincerely doubt it."

Three days later, standing on a hill in a forested part of Ragol, two mysterious warriors stand, watching Pioneer 2 make its approach to land.

"What do you think, my young friend?" the elder warrior asks.

"I think," the younger answers, "if Pioneer 2 is landing here, then there will be more and more need for people like me. We need to contact the Dragon before too long."

"I think you may be right. Now, draw your sword and let's continue your training." The two warriors clash blades as Pioneer 2 makes its touchdown on another continent far away from them.

3 years have now passed since Pioneer 2 has landed, and now, Mike BlackHawk is sitting in the park of the colony now referred to as "Pioneer City", with his daughter, Jessica. "Daddy," the young girl asks, "Why are you a hunter?"

Mike looks up to the skies, and thinks of the right words to use. "Sweetie," he begins, "A lot of people have asked me that question over the years. I guess it's because my father, and Master Zoke taught me something very important. About how a world where the strong survive and the weak just die would be a horrible fate for our people. They taught me that it should be our job to protect the helpless, not to prey on them."

"Can you teach me to be a hunter?"

"Maybe in a couple of years. You're still rather young, and I'd hate to start training you at this age." Mike then hears a beeping coming from his waist and looks down at his BEE uplink. It's a message from Maya.

"Come on, honey," the HUmar tells his daughter, "We've got to go. I think your new sister is coming." Mike drops a telepipe and the two go through the teleport gate.

The new medical center in Pioneer City was christened the "Rico Tyrell Memorial Medical Center". Rico's red ring sits on display in a glass case in the foyer. Several orderlies push a gurney through this area, from the emergency ward to the delivery room.

"Maya," Lara BlackHawk asks, "Has Mike made it here yet?"

"He's on his way, with Jessica," the RAcaseal answers, "They'll be here shortly."

Mike and Jessica appear through a telepipe, and run up to Lara. "I guess she's on the way," Mike tells Jessica, "Sweetie, you stay with your Aunts Maya and Amelia. We'll be back shortly." Mike then takes Lara's hand as they go through the doors to the delivery area. Jessica holds onto Maya, as Amelia stands with them. Seifer and Diego Angelus come through the hallway, only to get the news that Mike and Lara had already gone into delivery.

Several hours pass, and Mike BlackHawk comes through the door and motions for everyone to join him. They all go through to the nursery window, where Mike nods to the nurse. She picks up a newborn wrapped in a pink blanket.

"Have you decided on a name yet," Diego asks, "I'm sure Lara's been thinking hard to find one."

"We decided to name her Rhiana Michelle," Lara answers as an orderly pushes her up to the group in a wheelchair, "If we had a boy, we were going to name him after Mike's father, David Antonius."

"How long did you know you were having a girl?" Seifer inquires

"Only after my last checkup," Lara explains, "I couldn't stand the mystery anymore and asked the doctor to tell me."

The nurse brings Rhiana out to her mother, who cradles her close to her. Amelia gets out her camera and asks a doctor to take a picture as Jessica, Maya, Galveris, Seifer and Diego gathered around Mike and Lara. Amelia got in close as the doctor pointed the device at the group.

"Are you all friends?" he asks of the party

"Closer than that," Mike explains, "We're all family." That said, the doctor snaps the picture, which soon went in the BlackHawk family's album.


End file.
